Oleksiy Kolomiyets: Putin's plans are occupation of Latvia and access to Balkans

Oleksiy Kolomiyets, the president of the Centre for European and Transatlantic Studies, thinks Vladimir Putin's plans are to get access to Bulgaria and Serbia and occupy Latvia. UNIAN quotes the expert as saying at a press conference today.

“Putin had and still has the following plan: after Crimea, he wants to get access to Bulgaria and farther to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is the southern direction. The northern direction is the occupation of Latvia, complete destabilisation of Finland, access to Greenland and Spitsbergen. Our centre is convinced this plan existed before and still remains. They just took a break,” he said.

Foreign ministers of NATO member states agreed at a two-day meeting in Brussels to reinforce defence of the alliance members due to the Ukrainian crisis. They also agreed on particular measures to help Kyiv and promised a closer cooperation with Ukraine.